James Franklin is heading to Blacksburg. Just 36 days after he was fired as head coach of Penn State, he’s found a soft landing at Virginia Tech. While he did Penn State a favor on the way out, negotiating his $49 million buyout down to $9 million, now that he has finalized his deal with the Hokies, the favors are over.
Franklin has immediately gone on the offensive, looking to dismantle what is left of the 2026 recruiting class he constructed in Happy Valley. Before news of his agreement broke, CBS reported on Monday that Franklin had been having conversations with assistant coaches and recruits about joining him in Blacksburg. Understandably, those talks have ramped up.
One of Franklin’s first targets is reportedly three-star Penn State commit Mathieu Lamah. According to Brian Dohn on VTScoop, Franklin has reached out to Lamah to discuss his interest in Virginia Tech.
James Franklin working to flip 3-star Penn State LB commit Mathieu Lamah
Lamah, a Nokesville, Virginia native, is a good first target for Franklin at Virginia Tech. The 6-foot-3, 235-pound linebacker considered Virginia before committing to Penn State, and has a visit scheduled to Charlottesville for the final week of the regular season when the Cavaliers host the Hokies. However, Lamah has also already taken an official visit to Virginia Tech before Franklin’s former defensive coordinator, Brent Pry, was fired.
With early signing day right around the corner, Franklin doesn’t have a lot of time to assemble his first class with the Hokies, but he does have strong relationships with the players that originally intended to join him in Happy Valley, so that’s where he’ll start.
Lamah is now the first Penn State commit on flip-watch to the Hokies, but he won’t be the last. 4-star safety Matt Sieg, who, after 4-star offensive tackle Kevin Brown de-committed on Monday, is the top-rated member of the 2026 Penn State class, has named “wherever James Franklin ends up” as a finalist to land his commitment.
Without a long-term head coach in place, Penn State has been helpless to fight off Ohio State and West Virginia from flipping Brown or Pitt, and others from pursuing Sieg, but now that Franklin has his next job, Penn State’s 12 remaining commits should all be on flip-watch.
Penn State’s next head coach was always going to have his work cut out for him. With a senior-laden roster that was intended to compete for the national championship, the Nittany Lions will need a complete roster overhaul. Now, with a skeleton crew of a recruiting class, the number of transfers that whoever athletic director Pat Kraft hires will need to take.
On top of that, Franklin won’t just be going after recruits. He’ll inevitably target Penn State’s returning talent to join him through the transfer portal this offseason, especially the talented Virginia natives on the roster like linebacker Tony Rojas.
Unless that next head coach has a ready-made recruiting class that he can bring from his most recent job, the Nittany Lions may need somewhere from 50 to 70 transfers this offseason. So, along with bringing in a head coach, the program should consider hiring a general manager to ease the burden of an on-the-fly roster build.